Mental health clinicians at Kaiser Permanente’s locations in Oakland and Richmond said they will strike on Monday.
Therapists said Sunday they were told by the health care giant they would have Martin Luther King Day off as a paid holiday, but then it was changed back to a regular workday.
“What are we saying as an agency, that we don’t respect his legacy, but civil rights?” said Sabrina Chaumette.
Chaumette, a mental health therapist at Kaiser Oakland said her group and hundreds of others will strike on Monday.
“This is not a selling point. When you tell somebody you don’t get MLK Day but we really believe in civil rights,” she said.
Chaumette told NBC Bay Area the larger issue for her staff is the lack of therapists of color at Kaiser Oakland, especially given how many patients ask for people they will feel more comfortable opening up to. She said there are only five of them on its adult team.
“And when they walk in, they only see one provider, two providers that look like me. They wonder if it’s a safe place to go,” she said.
After the murder of George Floyd, Chaumette and colleagues asked Kaiser about doing more to help the mental health of patients of color. But she added that Kaiser only agreed to give them MLK Day off and then later took it back.
Kaiser Permanente released a statement Sunday acknowledging the miscommunication and disappointment, saying that “Kaiser Permanente will adopt, starting in 2023, MLK Day as a scheduled, paid holiday across the organization.”
Chaumette said the one-day strike is still on.
“I’m not very trusting. If we were told in March that we were gonna get it, and then in November, we get a note saying we’re not gonna get it, this could happen again next November,” she said.
Source: NBC Bay Area
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